The new issue of Motor Girl is out today. Hard to believe I’m on issue 8 already. Time flies when you’re having fun! Pick it up today at your LCS, or buy it online at our store while you’re here, along with back issues, the tshirt and first TPB. Enjoy!

My most treasured book is this little anthology of sci-fi stories assembled by Terry Carr in 1979 titled Beyond Reality.

I’ve had the book forever and it has survived many moves. Once at dinner, I sang its praises and loaned it to a writer friend, then worried about it for months until its return. Since then it has stayed on the top shelf, guarded by David and Jerusalem.

All eight stories within play with the concept of time. Time skipping, time paused, ahead of time, behind time, forwards, and backwards. My favorite story is the last, The Man Who Never Grew Young, by Frtitz Leiber, written in 1947. The concept is simple, a man is living in reverse time, day by day, and this is what he sees. But the execution of the idea, and the plain, matter-of-fact writing style, is captivating. Our hero watches people rise from their graves old and sick, get better, grow younger, return to jobs, vomit food onto plates, form it into raw vegetables and plant it in the ground where it becomes a seed they then collect. The man’s own wife grows younger until she returns to her mother and becomes an infant her mother sucks back inside herself. Eventually, cities and villages dissipate, people move in small herds and camp by the rivers, and our guy contemplates the day when there will be no other people. He wonders what will happen to him at that point and the story leaves us with that question.

Good, huh? I read this little masterpiece every year and it never ceases to capture my imagination.

Okay, I told you that so I could tell you this. For my whole writing career I’ve wanted to add to the sci-fi genre of man vs time. The idea I played with the most was a love affair between two people, with one of them living life backwards in time. His tomorrow is her yesterday or vice versa. Every time I started a new comic book series I considered the idea but the story logistics hurt my wee little brain. So, cut to 2017, Robyn and I are on a long plane flight returning from one european trip too many. We are tired and sick and all we want to do is go home, crawl under the covers and eat comfort food. I’m a limp rag of a person in my economy class seat, flipping through the movie options and I see the title: My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday

Wait, what? I click SELECT, see it’s a 2015 Japanese movie that is about exactly what the title says, like a Rumiko story. Yes please. Within a minute I’m watching my own idea, beautifully portrayed by two wonderful actors I’ve never seen before. You may think I’m upset to find my favorite idea has been done, but I’m actually so delighted to finally see it, and see it done so beautifully. Plus, I didn’t have to figure it out. Which is a relief because, remember, wee brain. So I’m watching the movie, completely engrossed and having one of those private happy experiences in the middle of a crowd doing other things.

But there is a problem… I didn’t find and start the movie until we were already over the U.S. I’m only halfway through the movie when the plane begins it’s initial descent into Houston. I’m only halfway through the movie. My poor wife is about to jump out of her skin from being on a plane all day, fidgeting and sighing, staring out the window. She tugs on my sleeve to see home out the window and I pretend like tht’s swell but I’m glued to my movie. When the double bell dings to indicate we’ve hit 10,000 feet, the flight crew begins repeatedly interrupting the movie with announcements. My patience is growing thin. Don’t these people know we have serious romance problems in Tokyo? When the captain interrupts to thank us for flying, I want to shout, “My God man, shut up and circle around ’til I tell you land!” The tree tops zip past the window and our wheels touch down as the couple’s relationship reaches the crucial midway and their roles are reversed. The boy is realizing where it’s all headed when the movie stops, the lights come on and Robyn practically runs me over to bail out of this nasty cigar tube we’ve been stuck in all day.

That was a few weeks ago. I still haven’t watched the last half of the movie. I can’t even find it. If my life were a movie, this is the part where I wander the city lost in thought while a pretty song plays. But I looked it up, of course and found a nice blog post or two about it. I will find it, of course, and finish watching it.

This story is not to be confused with the Jason Ayres story by the same name which is actually from a world building series of his titled The Time Bubble.

I found these while Googling, and they look like something I would enjoy so I look forward to reading them.

Anyway, I highly recommend my Japanese find. It’s sweet, clever, and thank God somebody finally told the story so we can all enjoy it.

Motor Girl 7 hit the stands Wednesday. I’ve been hearing from readers who were moved by the latest chapter of Sam’s story. It means the world to me when readers care about my characters. What more can a writer ask for? Since the issue just came out, I won’t comment on the story—no spoilers here—but I want you know I hear you and I’m grateful. You inspire me to keep working. Wait… was that your plan all along? Hmm.

Did you notice the cover is drawn with pencil and not inked? I do that sometimes to achieve a more organic look. I did it a lot in Rachel Rising because that world was so earthy. When you draw with pencil, the forms are comprised of a million tiny grains of lead. The pencil is like a magic molecule stylus, leaving a tail of carbon specks in its wake. If you’re drawing with nature and physics in mind, you’re reluctant to cover that with ink and erase the softer natural lead lines underneath. That’s like destroying a rose to make a plaster cast of it.

So, yeah, sometimes I stay with the pencil and hand it over to my buddy Steve Hamaker to color as is. Steve is a true artist in every sense, a wonderful cartoonist and storyteller in his own right (see PLOX). And he is a master painter with Photoshop. He’s also taller than me and has all his hair, which really pisses me off, but I’m above it, ain’t I? (BBC joke :))

So I’m already working feverishly on issue 8 and making a sketch a day for San Diego Comic-Con. Just a couple of weeks to go and everybody in the business is scrambling like mad to prepare for the biggest show of the year. I’ll post again soon with a listing of some of the goodies you can expect to find at our booth. We’ll be in the same location we have every year, BOOTH 2109, across from DC Comics.

I’ll be back on the blog soon but for now I have to go draw something!

It’s all about Germany this week and the Comic Festival Munchen, courtesy of my wonderful publisher, Schreiber & Leser. I’m really looking forward to going back. Here is a cheat sheet of the schedule. If you just so happen to be strolling around the area this weekend, stop by and say hallo!

The new issue of Motor Girl hits the stands nextWednesday. I don’t know what to say about it without risking spoilers, but this is a moving look at a war veteran with PTSD… with some UFO’s and a gorilla thrown into the mix. I’ve devoted myself to Samantha’s story this year and it’s been an honor. Hope you enjoy it!

The Motor Girl book is here at last! Collecting the first 5 issues of my new series, Real Life introduces you to Samantha Locklear, a war veteran who has come home to work in a desert junkyard with Mike, her constant companion, who also happens to be a gorilla. Whether or not Mike is real is up for you to decide, but that’s just page one, before the UFO crashes into their yard one night. Click here to buy your copy and find out what happens next in this new collection of Motor Girl!